Isabel de Maudit (c1221-c1268)
}} Biography Isabel was the sister of William de Maudit, 8th Earl of Warwick, who died without issue. Hence the family title passed to Isabel's son William. William Maudit (or Mauduit), 8th Earl of Warwick (c. 1220 – 8 January 1267) was an English nobleman and participant in the Barons' War. He was the son of Alice de Beaumont (daughter of the 4th Earl) and William de Maudit, and so was the grandson of Waleran de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Warwick. His father was the lord of Hanslape and hereditary chamberlain of the exchequer, a title that went back to another William Maudit who held that office for Henry I. He adhered to Henry III in the wars with the barons. He was surprised in his own castle, Warwick Castle by John Giffard, the governor of Kenilworth Castle. The walls of the castle were destroyed and the countess taken prisoner to Kenilworth, and only released on payment of a ransom nineteen hundred marks. William Mauduit made the inner ward in the northwestern corner of Portchester Castle (Portus Adurni) for an unknown reason. This was made in 1090 and is a Norman Castle and had palisades on each side of the castle. He died without issue and the estates then passed to his sister Isabel de Maudit who had married William de Beauchamp. She died shortly after Warwick's death and the title passed to their son William. Family of Isabel de Maudit # William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick (1237-1298) - md Countess Maud Fitz-Geoffrey # Walter de Beauchamp (1243-1303) - md Alice Tony # Sarah de Beauchamp (1244-1306) - md Richard de Talbot (1260-1300) # John de Beauchamp (1245-1298) - # James de Beauchamp (1247-1298) - # Joan de Beauchamp (1249-1280) - md Bartholomew de Sudeley (1249-1280) # Isabel de Beauchamp (1252-1306) - md Patrick de Chaworth (b1250) # Sybil de Beauchamp (1251-1280) - Widowhood of Isabel The fate of Isabel Mauduit, wife of William of Elmley, and mother to Walter, William, and John is much disputed. Cokayne insists that she died at some point before 1268 whilst Dugdale insists that, as the foundress of the nunnery of Cookhill, she ‘betooke herself to a religious life there’. The only evidence for either of these assumptions is the internal evidence contained in William of Elmley's will. Certainly, William does make provision for a chaplain to ‘perform divine service in my chapel without the city of Worcester, next the Friars Minors, for my soul and the souls of Isabella my wife and Isabella de Mortimer and all the faithful dead’, endowing the church with property in Droitwich and Witton, and it is this which Cokayne sees as proof that she had died by the time William had written his will, although there is no other reason to suppose that this was the case. Moreover, the same document explicitly states ‘To the church and nuns of Kokeshull Cookhill and to Ysabella, my wife, 10 marks’. Admittedly, this does present some problems: Isabella would appear to have become a nun at least several months before the death of her husband, and not after his death as was usual. Also the allocation to her of 10 marks seems remarkably tight-fisted when compared to the 200 marks he gave Walter, or the 100 marks in aid of the marriage of his daughter Sarah. It is possible that Isabel took her vows out of concern for the state of the Warwick earldom. Matriarchs connected to the earldom of Warwick had an unnerving ability to outlive their husbands by a considerable margin; in 1268 there were no less than three of these women, Countess Ela, Angaret, and Alice, who between them soaked up valuable demesne lands in the earl's possession. It has been calculated that, at one point, these dowagers siphoned off around 22% of the earl's income. From the time of the Beauchamp accession in 1268, it was not unusual for surviving widows and unmarried daughters to enter the convent instead of being a potential drain upon the family's resources, and what is certain is that the Beauchamps could not afford a fourth dowager. In the context of this situation, Isabel's entering the convent of Cookhill does seem to be a very likely possibility. References * Beauchamp English Peerage 08